This Blog is created to stress the importance of Peace as an environmental directive. “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” – Harry Truman
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Wednesday, March 30, 2016

American physicians are not going to allow American women and girls to die in back street abortion clinics. American physicians are disgusted with the deaths of other doctors/colleagues at the hand of political extremists.

The professional associations in the USA matter. The politician that wants to outlaw abortionswill be met with strong push back and any law will fail.

June 7, 2016By Irin Carmon“Civil disobedience,” is what they called for (click here) Two prominent doctors,
Marcia Angell and Michael Greene — both professors at Harvard Medical
School; Angell the former editor in chief of the New England Journal of
Medicine – were saying doctors should disobey some of the most common abortion restrictions.

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“They
should make it clear that they will not perform procedures, such as
ultrasound examinations, unless they are medically indicated and desired
by their patients,” Angell and Greene wrote in an Op-Ed in USA Today on
May 15. “And they should refuse to provide inaccurate information about
the consequences of abortion, or to follow any other prepared script in
counseling their patients, particularly when it involves treating women
like children.”Doctors, of course, have long been at the center of the
abortion debate, but even as that effect has intensified — with bills
and laws that specifically target and potentially criminalize them, and
the politicized disregard of medical evidence pushed by a few actual
antiabortion doctors — not everyone is so willing to jump into the
political fray. And for abortion providers who are already dealing with
threats of violence and legal intimidation, conscientious objection is
probably a tall order....

According to the WHO 30 percent of maternal deaths is due to illegal abortion. History included legal abortions:

...The Supreme Court (click here) did not "invent" legal abortion, much less abortion itself, when it handed down its historic Roe v. Wade
decision in 1973. Abortion, both legal and illegal, had long been part
of life in America. Indeed, the legal status of abortion has passed
through several distinct phases in American history. Generally permitted
at the nation's founding and for several decades thereafter, the
procedure was made illegal under most circumstances in most states
beginning in the mid-1800s. In the 1960s, states began reforming their
strict antiabortion laws, so that when the Supreme Court made abortion
legal nationwide, legal abortions were already available in 17 states
under a range of circumstances beyond those necessary to save a woman's
life....

According to filed death certificates there have been 17.8 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in the USA in 2009 and 2011.

Remember, the health care industry profit margin is 15 percent. That 15 percent grows exponentially with costs.If their income is $100 their profit is $15.00 after costs of $85.00. But, if their income is $200 their profit is $30.00 after the costs of $170.00, etc.The higher the expenses, the greater the profit.

The healthcare industry computer software circus is a really good example of what goes on with any new administration.The issue of interstate communication for the healthcare industry will probably fall under three federal authorities besides the President's executive order right. It seems to me the FCC, HHS and Homeland Security is involved. The healthcare records include sensitive information for people like President Obama.What needs to happen here is for the President to ask these agencies to look into escalating costs due to repeated and unnecessary spending on items such as computer software. Many hospitals are non-profit and like to spend their income to reduce profits and fall in guidelines of non-profit. The monies for unnecessary activities and items like construction vs client populations and software are frequent abuses of national healthcare costs. Each administration plays with regulations to benefit their cronies. The way to stop this is for any changes from administration to administration has to engage a period of "Public Comment."So, this entire mess can become rather burdensome to the cost of health care. The three departments mentioned need to write regulations regarding frequency of changes in software and building expansions, etc. Hospitals under Bush saw closures all the time. The number of patient beds dropped, especially that of mental health services. Today there are far more procedures than surgery and the need for patient beds are somewhat lower, but, not with all hospitals. Major hospitals always have high demands on their services. But, there needs to be an understanding that the health care industry has to review it's repeated abuses and engage oversight. That means the departments have to write regulations for the industry on repeat spending such as construction and computer software. The country has to have a say in the expense the industry is causing consumers. What I could not understand in the closure of hospitals, why the majors didn't scoff up the empty facilities. But, that is just me. There are may ways to cut health care costs and it is best handled through necessary regulation and review of the industries activities.Consumers and sometimes elected officials don't see the big picture and would never expect such wasteful spending from an industry where their lives are supported through trusted doctors and hospitals. CEOs are different kinds of cats.

Orion chief executive Ian McCrae said the deal would see the Auckland-based company's Amadeus precision medicine platform supplied to the as-yet unnamed insurer, which has over 3 million members. No financial details of the deal were released.

"We will be announcing the name [of the insurer] next week once we get through their internal processes," McCrae said. "It's a big payer organisation."

Orion shares, which listed at $5.70 in the firm's 2014 initial public offering, gained 4.2 per cent to close at $3.25 last night.

McCrae said the technology would give the insurer's provider partners access to patient records from all the healthcare facilities at which members had received care....The ACA has just passed Congress in 2010 and became fully engaged in 2014. There was a section of the law that allowed the healthcare industry to become digital in their records and relationships within the industry. What concerns me is opportunists that want to push their products regardless of cost. In other words, what if Orion decided to place their software with health care insurers because that is where the payment system is conducted. Then by pressure of inefficiency, lack of interface, the entire health care network ultimately will have to change to the insurers software. Orion can provide the software free to the insurers if it will ultimately profit by money that will drive the cost of health care up. The health care industry does not need state of the art, as USA intelligence should have, so long as it does the job and works. There are different software for different functions, but, ultimately hospitals are talking to each other, insurance agencies, drug stores; so the enormity of software is considerable. Scottsdale is noted on the Orion website. (click here)Scottsdale Health Partners, Faron Thompson, COO (click here)TigerText Health (click here)

Since 2012, the government has been in peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Those talks have resulted in agreements on key points, but the negotiations remain ongoing.

The talks with the FARC have been controversial, with critics arguing that the process has provided rebels with time to strengthen. Others say that negotiations with the rebels -- who have been at war with the government for decades and are responsible for bombings and kidnappings -- are repugnant.

The government and the FARC had hoped to sign a final peace agreement this month, but the deadline has been pushed back. According to the President's office, negotiators for both parties say they "are in the final stretch."

The ELN, a smaller but formidable rebel group, was not involved in the talks between the government and the FARC....

I think when the incident (which should not occur) is placed in context of the campaigns concerns, it will be dismissed.

Donald Trump now has body guards and journalists may not know the directions provided to the staff either. Breibart should have taken control of the issue, maintained concern for their journalists and moved to a private posture to seek an understanding with the Trump campaign of what occurred with Michelle Fields.July 14, 2015by Geoff Earle As new photos revealed (click here) how billionaire cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman made his great escape from prison, Donald Trump beefed up his security detail in response to a threat the fugitive drug lord purportedly tweeted.“We have officials all over the place, including right outside
hanging out in trees,” Trump told reporters Tuesday at a ribbon-cutting
ceremony for Albemarle Estate, his new winery and bed and breakfast in
Charlottesville, Va.Trump arrived with extra brawn, including two state troopers who escorted him from his helicopter.The Donald is on edge after a threatening tweet fired off from an
account that apparently belongs to Sinaloa Cartel king El Chapo....

There is conflicting testimony. Add all this to the fact the family is receiving death threats, the stress on the candidate and staff is considerable. I don't approve of physical abuse of women, but, I think this charge will be dropped because of the tensions with staff when Donald Trump moves through crowds. Everyone needs to stop hating this man and his family.

The moment.

29 March 2016Republican front-runner (click here) Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey
Lewandowski has been charged with simple battery for allegedly grabbing a
reporter, in a case that may hinge on a Secret Service claim that the
journalist first made unwanted physical contact with the
billionaire-turned-politician.‘Victory press conference was over. Why is she allowed to grab me and
shout questions? Can I press charges?’ Trump tweeted this afternoon....

When is Snyder leaving? I am concerned for Michigan beyond the Flint policy. We don't know how much damage he has done since becoming Governor. This policy is just one example. We need a new governor before the level of malpractice by Snyder is known.

The involvement of the DEQ is corruption not incompetence. We have witnessed this level of corruption in North Carolina as well. People go along with it because they need their jobs. That is not an excuse to allow danger in people's lives, but, when the US EPA isn't moving rapidly into the corruptiona government employee feels abandoned and lacks impowerment. What was occurring in Washington, DC was standard practice because they never thought the danger was off the scale. The negative feedback loop to MDEQ emboldened the governor and weakened the professionals.

Also, the poisoning continued past a one year policy. If the state insisted on a one year study, then clean water to the residents should have been well established before the switch to a Flint River water source.

By the AP Flint, Mich. — An official with Flint's water
plant said Tuesday he had planned to treat the drinking water with
anti-corrosive chemicals after the city began drawing from the Flint
River but was overruled by a state environmental regulator. Mike Glasgow, then a supervisor at the plant and
now the municipal utilities administrator, said he received the
instruction from district engineer Mike Prysby of the Michigan
Department of Environmental Quality during a meeting to discuss the
final steps before Flint switched from the Detroit water system as a
cost-saving measure in April 2014. Glasgow said Prysby told him a year of water
testing was required before a decision could be made on whether
corrosion controls were needed, which the state DEQ has since
acknowledged was a misreading of federal regulations on preventing lead
and copper pollution. The omission enabled lead to leach from aging
pipes and fixtures and contaminate tap water that reached some homes,
businesses and schools....

Besides the obvious benefit to low income families, treasuries at all level of government benefit as well.

March 30, 2016By Natalie KitroeffMore (click here) than a third of the state's workers would benefit from those moves, UC Berkeley estimates."California's
proposal would be the highest minimum wage we have seen in the United
States, and because of California's sheer size, it would cover the
largest number of workers," said Ken Jacobs, chairman of the UC Berkeley
center. "This is a very big deal for low-wage workers in California,
for their families and for their children....

California's low income workers will take on an entirely new economic profile. They will move up in tax brackets as well as graduating from government subsides such as food stamps.

The $15.00 minimum wage is nearly double the current minimum wage in most states. That is a lot of new liquidity in the US economy.

Most families considered the working poor work at least two jobs. Let's say they now work 60 hours per week. California's current minimum wage is $10.00 per hour. The working poor is making $600 per week. The cost of living in California is higher than therest of the USA with perhaps the exception of Massachusetts. There are cities such s NYC that has a higher quality of life cost, but, this is within the context of states.

Let's say a person working 60 hours per week continues to do so with a higher minimum wage. That person in California will have added a full third to their income. The gross income is now $900. That moves that family out of a sustainable life into one with disposable income. It pushes that person and family into the income level where home ownership is realistic and sustainable.

Across the country a mandated $15.00 per hour would increase the economy in drastically different dynamics.

There may be some job losses with an increase of a $15.00 minimum wage, but, it would be minimal. The increase in minimum wage, in time, would return those jobs as the liquidity infused the economy. It is a win-win-win decision.

There can be no restrictions on funding. The current remedies needs to go forward while other methods are in the laboratory.

March 30, 2016By Amy HarmonWith the Zika virus (click here) spreading largely unchecked
in Latin America and the Caribbean by way of a now-notorious insect,
some of the nation’s leading mosquito researchers are striving to
assemble a state-of-the-art DNA map that they say will help them fight
the disease with the mosquito’s own genetic code.

The
quest involves scientists from assorted disciplines who rarely
collaborate, often compete for funding and have different ideas about
how to genetically manipulate the mosquito, Aedes aegypti.

Some
want to hunt for genes that, if altered in mosquitoes released into the
wild, could drive the species to extinction. Others are trying to
identify genes that control how mosquitoes sense human prey so as to
devise better repellents. Still others favor the idea of selectively
breeding populations of mosquitoes, like corn or cattle, for desirable —
or, at least, less undesirable — traits, such as a preference for
biting animals other than humans....

Understand the opportunity for mutation to defeat insecticide. There is no evidence of resistance to insecticide, but, the opportunity exists with most any insect. The best example is the American Cockroach.

Then realize while these insects have a small lifespan the numbers are growing. A single female mosquito produces large numbers of offspring.

The race to defeat the most fatal mosquito is on. We cannot fail anyone. The funding is not astronomical.

A
woman in Tanzania under a mosquito tent with a relative who was being
treated for malaria. With gene drives, it may be possible to kill off a
mosquito population or make the population resistant to malaria
parasites.Credit
Uriel Sinai for The New York Times

The
technique involves a mechanism called a gene drive system, which
propels a gene of choice throughout a population. No gene drives have
yet been tested in the wild, but in laboratory organisms like the fruit
fly, they have converted almost the entire population to carry the
favored version of a gene.

Gene
drives “could potentially prevent the spread of disease, support
agriculture by reversing pesticide and herbicide resistance in insects
and weeds, and control damaging invasive species,” a group of Harvard biologists wrote last year in the journal eLIFE.

A much discussed application of gene drives would help rid the world of pest-borne diseases like malaria, dengue fever and Lyme disease....

We need to get on with this. The crop issue is a far different discussion. The funding needs to go to mosquito research. Time is a wasting.

The resolve to destroy this species has to be complete. This mutation is a complete surprise and lends itself to human research of the disease as a weaponcarrying insect. If this insect continues to exist on Earth, it's ability to develop a new attack on genetics is possible. If the virus did it once, it will do it again.

There is the question of where is the 'virus acquired' by this species of mosquito. The Aedes aegypti is not hatched with the virus residing on it or in it. There is a source of infection.

The destruction of the virus has to be complete. The opportunity of this virus has to be eliminated. It is the virus that is the enemy. The mosquito is a vector. If destroying the vector eliminates the virus, then so be it.

Ecosystems are extremely important to respect, but, there is at least one researcher that states the mosquito can go.

21 July 2010By Janet Fang

Every day, Jittawadee Murphy (click here) unlocks a hot, padlocked room at the
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland, to a
swarm of malaria-carrying mosquitoes (Anopheles stephensi).
She gives millions of larvae a diet of ground-up fish food, and offers
the gravid females blood to suck from the bellies of unconscious mice —
they drain 24 of the rodents a month. Murphy has been studying
mosquitoes for 20 years, working on ways to limit the spread of the
parasites they carry. Still, she says, she would rather they were wiped
off the Earth.
That sentiment is widely shared. Malaria infects some 247 million people worldwide each year, and kills nearly one million....

...Arctic pests

Elimination of
mosquitoes might make the biggest ecological difference in the Arctic
tundra, home to mosquito species including Aedes impiger and Aedes nigripes.
Eggs laid by the insects hatch the next year after the snow melts, and
development to adults takes only 3–4 weeks. From northern Canada to
Russia, there is a brief period in which they are extraordinarily
abundant, in some areas forming thick clouds. "That's an exceptionally
rare situation worldwide," says entomologist Daniel Strickman, programme
leader for medical and urban entomology at the US Department of
Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland. "There is no other place in the
world where they are that much biomass."...

The only party where infidelity is penalized is the Democratic Party. While the RNC will be exposed, it won't care and neither will the Republican primary voters. As a matter of fact while the media rages on about such scandals, the Republicans suddenly become silent.March 28, 2016By Steven Nelson

A lawyer who represented (click here) the so-called “D.C. madam” says he has phone records that could influence the outcome of the presidential election, and he’s threatening to release one or more names on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court if he’s denied a hearing on his right to distribute them.Montgomery Blair Sibley, the late madam Deborah Palfrey’s colorful attorney, has been subject to a restraining order since 2007 barring him from releasing the information, which he says includes 815 names, addresses and Social Security numbers of Verizon Wireless customers.“Time is of the essence because people are casting votes in primaries and caucuses,” he says. “I believe this information is relevant to that political discourse.”...The DC Madam carried on a business as "Pamela Martin and Associates" starting 1995 through at least 2006. I don't think speculation is the correct thing to do. To begin Ms. Palfrey is not here to speak to any accuracy of a newly released documents of phone records. I also am disgusted at that reality. She wasn't a hardened criminal. Her emotional stability when the phone records went out was never questioned and as a result she hung herself. She's dead and Vitter has gone on untouched by his escapades. There is something very wrong with that.There is a huge statement about sexism in the reality she is dead. But, that is what it is and now there is going to be more speculation and records. She knew it was sexist. That is why she provided "The John/Jane Phone Number List." It is the women that always pay the price for prostitution. No one dare prosecute Vitter, did they? They didn't even prosecute for prostitution, it was extraneous charges that imprisoned her for six years. Everyone of her customers went untouched.

This is the epage that contains downloadable documents (click here).I find it strange this should be an issue this far into the primary process. The RNC or DNC are this desperate to remember "Ah, ha, Bush prosecuted that woman with the phone records." What I find strange is that Deborah Palfrey published the records to let the media learn of who might be at the end of those phone records. Now, there are more records that are damning of a presidential candidate? Really? How is it the phone records are so definitive now opposed to the fact the the media was needed before?Those are very old phone records and there is the FACT most Americans have mobile phones that may or may not be the same. There are decade old or older phone records? Really? It doesn't make sense. Deborah Palfrey is dead. The records still live? There are too many questions for me to be speculative.Speculation could be expensive.